Israel Moves Toward Building More Settler Homes

ISABEL KERSHNER

Friday

Jul 25, 2008 at 4:34 AM

An Israeli defense committee has approved the construction of 22 homes in a barely populated West Bank settlement, a move that angered Palestinians.

JERUSALEM — An Israeli defense committee has approved the construction of 22 homes in a barely populated West Bank settlement, Defense Ministry officials said Thursday. The move appeared to catch some Israeli officials off guard, angered Palestinians and was likely to prompt criticism from the international community as it tried to push forward a long-faltering peace process.

Israeli officials who confirmed the details on condition of anonymity in the absence of any official statement suggested that the approval came in the context of a quiet deal with settler leaders who had agreed to remove some illegal West Bank outposts in return. The officials noted that the building plans were subject to final approval by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Previous plans to build at the settlement, Maskiot, in the Jordan Valley, were frozen in January 2007 by Amir Peretz, then the defense minister, after American officials voiced displeasure. He said he had approved the settlement plan to fulfill his predecessor’s promise to build at the site to resettle some Israelis forced to leave the Gaza Strip in 2005.

Many regard Maskiot as a new settlement, the first to be established in the West Bank in more than a decade, making the decision to build permanent housing there all the more contentious. But Israeli officials and settler leaders hold that Maskiot was established in the 1980s by Nahal, a youth- and agriculture-oriented branch of the army that founded many settlements in Israel and the occupied territories to bolster security, intending to turn them into civilian settlements.

“Maskiot has been settled since 1982,” said a Defense Ministry spokeswoman, noting that a religious boarding school had been operating at the site, which was an army base in the 1990s. The ministry’s planning and construction committee published its decision in Israeli newspapers on Wednesday in what the spokeswoman described as a purely bureaucratic step toward “expansion of an existing settlement.”

The new housing is intended for families of a former Gaza settlement, Shirat Hayam. To persuade them to leave Gaza peacefully, the army promised to keep them together. At least eight of the families are already living at Maskiot in trailers.

Much of the world considers Israel’s settlements in Palestinian territory a violation of international law. Israel says the West Bank is disputed, its fate to be decided in negotiations for an independent state for the Palestinians. It hopes to be able to keep a few major settlement blocs. The Palestinians have said they are ready for minor land swaps along the 1967 boundary separating Israel and the West Bank. But Maskiot is far from that boundary, on the opposite side of the West Bank, near Jordan’s border.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Olmert, said Thursday that the request for building in Maskiot “has not come yet to our table.” He added that Israel would “honor all of its commitments on the issue of settlements,” referring to Mr. Olmert’s pledge not to build any new settlements, not to expand existing ones beyond their current boundaries and not to expropriate any more Palestinian land.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator and aide of President Mahmoud Abbas, denounced the construction plans. “This is destroying the process of a two-state solution,” he told The Associated Press. “I hope the Americans will make the Israelis revoke the decision. I think they can make the Israelis do this.”

There was no immediate comment from American diplomats in the region. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned during a recent visit that “settlement activity has the potential to harm the negotiations” and said that “parties should adhere to their obligations under the road map,” referring to a 2003 peace plan that calls for Israel to freeze settlements and for the Palestinians to dismantle terrorist networks.

In a June 24 statement, the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers — the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — “reiterated its deep concern” over Israel’s continued settlement activity, calling for a complete settlement freeze.

A statement on behalf of the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said Thursday that he was “deeply concerned” about the announcement of initial approval of the Maskiot homes.

Settler leaders and government officials say four illegal outposts have already been quietly removed, but they refuse to go into details, saying publicity limits the possibility of compromise.

Dani Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing the settlers, said by telephone that there was “no direct connection” between the permission for the new homes and the removal of outposts. He did say the settlers’ unilateral removal of four outposts “may have created a positive atmosphere.”

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.